A categorisation of teacher feedback in the classroom: a field study on feedback based on routine classroom assessment in primary school

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine and categorise teachers’ strategies for feedback in day-to-day communication in primary school. The different feedback categories constructed and grounded in data are applicable to feedback on learning and knowledge as well as on behavioural skills. Qualitative classroom observations were conducted in 4 primary school classrooms, including a total of 4 teachers and 75 students. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used throughout the analytical process. The analysis of the field data generated five main categories of feedback focuses: expecting, emotionally responding, normalising, steering and deliberating. The categories are all broad, yet with subcategories specific and nuanced, presenting concepts by which we can verbalise and communicate teachers’ feedback strategies. The categories place teachers’ feedback actions in a landscape, not on a linear axis. The complexity of feedback, as it is shown in the present study, challenges a dichotomisation of feedback and captures more of a complexity of classroom assessment.

• Classroom assessment
• feedback
• grounded theory
• primary school